“Why is that?”
“There’s no fight left in you today.” Edward watched her face as he said this. “You must be missing your sword.”
He had done it again. Niki had all she could do not to laugh. Instead, she continued to gaze out to sea.
“Does everyone at home get teased like this?”
“I’m a perfect dear, if that’s what you’re asking. They all adore me.”
Niki kept her eyes on the sea. If she saw his mischievous expression, she would be lost. The thought disquieted her. When was the last time she had felt like laughing? When had she met someone who was so good-natured and willing to help?
“I think you have much on your mind,” Edward commented, interrupting her thoughts.
“You’re right. I do.”
“How long after we arrive in England will you be at your destination?”
“If all is clear, only a few days. How about yourself?”
“About the same.”
“No doubt your family will be missing you, dear soul that you are.”
This said, Niki tossed him a challenging glance and moved on her way. Edward watched her for a time. She was careful to keep her head down and play the part, but to someone who knew her even a little, there was a regal air about her that could not be disguised.
Edward decided it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn she was royalty after all and then realized he would probably never know. The thought left his heart in a quandary.
Brest, France
Once in port Denley never left the deck. The Henderson did not waste time at the dock. There was cargo to unload and passengers to disembark, but both Denley and Edward knew that the ship planned to be back underway long before evening.
To anyone else’s eye, Denley’s actions would not be suspect, but Edward knew what he was about. Edward did some looking himself but saw nothing alarming. He reminded himself that he could have been fooled but was fairly certain that no one who would be cause for alarm lurked about or boarded the ship before it left for English shores.
Indeed, in very short order they were back out to sea. And this was the last leg of the voyage. Edward didn’t see a lot of Niki—Denley was on hand to play the part—but he thought that might be for the best. Even with Denley available to see to her needs, Edward knew he was going to worry when they said goodbye.
Chapter Eight
Portsmouth, England
“Are you all set?” Edward asked, having slipped into the cabin next door. Passengers leaving the ship could disembark at any time.
“Yes,” Niki said, working hard to hide her feelings and almost wishing Denley were present.
“Good. Take care of yourself.”
“You do the same.”
Edward hesitated and then threw caution to the wind.
“I hope you won’t find me presumptuous,” he ventured, aware of the way she tensed, “but I wrote some verses down. You don’t have to take them if you don’t want to.”
“I would like to see them,” Niki said with relief, unaware of the yearning Edward could see in her eyes.
Edward pulled a paper from his coat pocket.
“I wrote many of them out, and when I ran out of room, I just put the references. Maybe you’ll have a chance to look them up.”
“I’ll do that. Thank you, Edward.”
She was too vulnerable for him just then. With a brief nod, Edward slipped out the door. Denley was just coming back. The two stopped in the passageway.
“Take care of her, Denley. And yourself.”
“I’ll do my best, sir. I wish you well.”
The men parted, Edward making his way toward the gangplank and Denley into the cabin, where he found Niki sitting on a bunk studying a piece of paper. She didn’t even look up when he entered.
“Everything is ready.”
Niki looked up, her face thoughtful.
“Are you all right?”
“Yes.” She gave herself a mental shake, folded the paper, and placed it in her pocket. “What do I carry?”
Denley had lightweight cases for her, and, though it was against his grain, led the way from the cabin, appearing to all as the older, superior servant. Niki knew her part by heart, and no one gave them a single glance as they left the ship, walked toward town, and rented the first available coach.
“Did Mr Steele say where he was headed?” Niki asked when they were underway.
“Not to me he didn’t.”
“How far is this driver willing to take us?”
“London.”
Niki sat doing sums in her head, figuring out when they would get in and whether they would continue on from London that night or wait until morning. She was anxious—there was no getting around it—but she didn’t want to arrive exhausted.
Kendal-in-the-Forest
Niki and Denley arrived at the home of Edgar and Juliana Lawton in the late evening. Niki had not wanted to stop over in Bath but had forced herself to do so, so as not to arrive at Kendal in the middle of the night.
The forest was dense and heavy around them, but as soon as they drew near the house, light could be seen. The coachman, familiar with the area, made his way competently up the lane and to the front door. Niki was emerging from the coach’s interior when the front door opened. She slipped inside, nodded to the butler, and immediately made for the stairs. The rustle of fabric sounded behind her, but she didn’t look around.
At the top of the stairs she turned right and went to the bedroom she’d claimed as her own. Once inside she turned to see a longtime friend enter, lantern in hand.
“Heavens, Niki!” Juliana wasted no time. “Why in the world are you dressed as a servant?”
“It’s a long story,” she said as they embraced. “Help me with my hair, will you, Jules?”
“You’re late, you know,” Juliana scolded. “Gar and I have been worried for days.”
“I’ve been a little worried myself.”
“Which dress?” Juliana asked, getting down to business.
“Anything will do.”
Ten minutes later, feeling thrown together and not caring, Niki made her way down the stairs. She stopped at the door of the large drawing room where Gar met her. She sighed over his tender embrace.
“Hello, Gar.”
“Hello, Niki. Are you all right?”
“I am now. How are they?”
“Wonderful, as always.”
Niki took a huge breath, suddenly overcome with emotion.
“Don’t fall apart now,” he encouraged.
Niki nodded. “I’ll go in.”
Edgar opened the door and let her enter alone. As the door shut, she stood still for a moment and only looked at the little boys inside. Still in the shadows, they did not notice her entrance. Knowing her voice was going to shake, she called to them.
“Christopher. Richard.”
Hearing her sent them into immediate motion. The blocks on the floor forgotten, they sprang up.
“Mama!”
Niki began to run, meeting her five-year-old twin boys in the middle of the room and going to her knees to hold them. She tried to touch every part of them, kiss them, and talk to them all at one time, and all while crying.
They tried to talk as well, and after a few moments of damp mayhem, Niki fell silent.
“We missed you,” Christopher admitted, his eyes on her face.
“And it’s almost Christmas!” Richard put in.
“I made it just in time, didn’t I? And I missed you too.”
“Where did you go this time?” Christopher asked.
“You’ll never guess,” Niki teased them.
“France?”
“No.”
“Italy?”
“No, much farther.”
The boys looked at each other, and Niki took pity on them.
“I was in Africa.”
Their little mouths rounded with surprise, and Niki laughed. At the same time she heard the door open.
“It’s Denley!” the boys cried, scrambling from their mother’s arms to greet him.
“Hello, Master Christopher; hello, Master Richard.”
“Denley,” they told him, very serious, “Mama’s home, and she’s been to Africa!”
“Africa?” He appeared to be amazed. “How splendid. Did she see elephants?”
The boys looked to her, and Niki laughed. They ran back, headed for her lap, but she had come to her feet, knowing Denley needed her.
“Yes, Denley,” she prompted kindly.
“If I may, Mrs Bettencourt, I think I might retire for the evening.”
“Of course, Denley. Thank you.”
He nodded, weary but at peace, and slipped back out the door. The boys already had their mother’s hands, taking her to see their blocks and the small town they were building. Niki went back to the floor and listened to their chatter, a mixture of French and English.
“Were you good boys while I was away?” she asked them, watching as they grew quiet. Niki looked between them, surprised by this reaction.
“Does someone want to tell me something?”
“We fought today,” Richard admitted. “I punched and Chris kicked.”
“What was this about?”
“We both wanted the special ball.”
“And who got it?”
“No one. Uncle Gar took it, and we had to sit in chairs.”
“Did you apologize to each other?”
Their heads bobbed, their looks contrite.
“Did you apologize to Uncle Gar?”
This one stumped them, and looking at their adorable faces, fair hair falling on their brows, Niki had all she could do not to laugh.
“Shall we go and find him?” their mother suggested, her eyes soft with tenderness toward them.
The little boys agreed, and since it was growing a bit late, they found Gar and Juliana in their room.
“May we disturb you?” Niki asked even as the boys climbed on their bed, clearly having been there before.
“Of course,” Juliana replied as she stopped brushing her hair and Gar set his book aside.
“The boys have something to tell you.”
In another mix of French and English, the boys reminded Gar that they had fought and were sorry. Gar held them close, and told them all was well. They kissed him soundly and returned to their mother.
“Go to your room now, and ready yourselves for bed,” she ordered. “I’ll be right along.”
Niki watched them head out and then turned back to her friends.
“Where did the French come from?”
“That’s my fault,” Juliana admitted. “I thought I would teach them a little, completely forgetting the years they’d been around it, and with a few lessons, it came pouring out of them. Now every sentence is a mixture of both languages. It’s so amusing, I can’t stand to correct them.”
Niki laughed. “I can’t believe how big they are. Have you ever seen anything so precious?”
“Never,” Gar agreed.
“I’m going to sleep in with them tonight. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Be ready to talk,” Gar ordered, and Niki said that she would be.
Once Niki had gone to her own room to change into her nightgown and robe, she slipped down the hall and found the twins making little progress with their bedclothes. They were looking at a picture book and not moving very fast. Niki didn’t lecture them but worked on small buttons and shoes, content just to be near them.
When the boys were finally ready, Niki climbed into the middle of the bed they shared, and smiled as the two of them moved to either side of her.
“Are you going away again?”
“No,” Niki said, begging God to let it be so. “We’re going to be together now.”
“Here at Kendal?”
“Yes. Won’t that be fun?”
Without warning the boys agreed, both speaking at once and in the hysterical mix of a dual language.
“Can you do something for me?” Niki cut in gently after letting them ramble for a time. “I would like you to speak only French until you go to sleep.”
Thinking this a great game, Christopher and Richard giggled and concentrated, saying things just to try them out.
Niki corrected them a number of times and worked on their pronunciations until all three were spent. The small group fell asleep as they were, snuggled close without moving.
Several hours later, Juliana found she couldn’t sleep. Taking the lantern, she went to check on Niki and the boys. Holding the light high, she studied the three fair heads, looking even younger in sleep. They belonged together as they were right now.
Her heart ached for their dilemma. The thought of losing the boys was almost more than she could bear, but Niki’s separating from them again was worse.
Wondering if she would sleep at all, Juliana went back to her bed. She had things to say, and in the morning she would say them. She finally fell asleep with a plan, completely unaware that Gar would beat her to it.
“You can’t do this any longer,” Gar came right out and said at the breakfast table just hours after his wife had been in the boys’ room. “You’re thin and pale, Niki, and you can’t go on this way.”
“I won’t be doing it any longer,” she said quietly, still in her robe and sipping tea from a perfect China cup. “I decided on this trip: I won’t be separated from the boys again. It was too much this time.”
“What happened, Niki?” Juliana wanted to know. “Where were you?”
“Denley became ill. I’ve never seen him like that.”
“How ill?”
“Very. He slept all the time and had a high fever. One doctor even spoke of bleeding him.”
“Where was all this?”
“We were on a ship out of Africa. It was to make a swift stop in Lisbon and go on, but Denley was too ill to continue. We disembarked and stayed at an inn.”
“And you handled all of this on your own?” Juliana sounded as horrified as she felt.
“As a matter of fact, I didn’t. There was a gentleman who stepped in.”
The Lawtons stared at her.
“Who was it?”
“His name is Edward Steele.”
“Was he one of Pomeroy’s men?”
“No, nothing like that. He and Denley ended up in the same cabin together on board ship. Denley was so ill that he asked Edward to look after me. Edward agreed and would not be parted from us until Denley was back on his feet. It took several days, but it felt like weeks.”
“Well, there’s no harm done in that,” Gar spoke with relief. “We’re just thankful you had someone.”
“He figured it out,” Niki added and waited. As she expected, her hosts were stunned.
“Is that why you arrived here last night looking like a servant?”
Gar had not been aware of this, and Niki sat quietly as Juliana explained. “You can’t believe how different she looked. I would have passed her on the street and never known her.”
Gar looked back to Niki. “All right, Nicola, all of it. I want the whole story—every word.”
Niki began. It was early, and the boys would not be awake for some time, so the three were not interrupted. The Lawtons had occasional questions, but for the most part they sat in silence and listened to Niki’s unbelievable tale.
“You were actually held up?”
“Yes. They didn’t take anything, thanks to that sword we worked into my coat.”
“So that was before your servant act?”
“Yes, I didn’t become a servant until the very end.”
“And did you actually work as a servant to this man?”
To their surprise, she smiled and laughed a little.
“He was without mercy,” she told them, still chuckling. “He wanted his tea hot and his boots shined.”
“And all this time he knew you were a woman?”
“Yes. He has three sisters, and I get the impression that he teases them nonsto
p.”
The Lawtons were utterly silent. This had not been a part of the plan, and Niki’s looking back on it with laughter threw them off completely.
“I almost forgot,” Juliana suddenly said, going to the sideboard and coming toward Niki with a stack of letters. “Some mail caught up with you.”
Niki looked through the letters and even read one of them. She looked thoughtful, and Gar would have questioned her, but the boys came tumbling in.
“Good morning, my darlings,” Niki greeted them, bringing them close for warm hugs and kisses.
Declaring themselves to be starving, they sat at the table and waited patiently for food to arrive. It didn’t take long.
While they ate, Niki talked with them. She learned more about the things they had done in the weeks she’d been away. She had only been gone six weeks this time, but it seemed much longer. The boys were taller, and she thought their vocabulary had improved.
An ache filled her over missing these developments, causing her to be more determined than ever to miss nothing more. She didn’t know what the days would bring in the near or far future, but whatever it was, the three of them would go through it together.
Her excitement at seeing the boys notwithstanding, trooping through the woods with them for more than three hours exhausted Niki. Her feet hurt from the shoes she wore, and she’d scratched the back of her hand on a branch. When Gar, who had led this little expedition, said he was going on to the creek to fish for a time, Niki waved the white flag.
“I’m headed back to the house. I’ll see you when you return.”
Not willing to miss an opportunity to fish, even for their mother, the boys blew kisses to her and merrily chased after Gar. Niki would have liked someone to carry her back but forced herself to keep moving, even going so far as to search for Denley when she returned.
She found him sitting quietly in the side yard, a book open on his lap.
“How are you?” Niki asked, waving him down when he started to stand. She took a chair nearby. “Please tell me you’re getting lots of rest,” she begged.
“I am, thank you. Are you well?”
“Yes, just concerned about you.”
“I’m fine. I’ll take today and tomorrow off, and then I’ll be ready whenever you are.”